Cheese! {a montage}

Christmas Morning

On Christmas morning Clementine woke up and immediately yelled over the monitor "DADDY! Is Santa comin'?" This girl was excited and more than ready to get this Christmas thing going.
Our new tradition is taking excited Christmas morning pictures on the staircase before opening presents. She got to open these Christmas footie pjs on Christmas Eve (Santa left them on our doorstep for her) and they look so comfy! In the picture of her walking toward me, she's saying over and over again "Mama, Santa? Santa's comin'? Kiss-miss?"
Of course,the first thing she found was the Clementine-sized guitar. She was so excited to have a guitar just like daddy's.

She was amazed that all this stuff was here for her. She started out opening presents one by one and playing with or modeling what was inside.
She got a light up Little People bus
and a Tinkerbelle mug (boy, does this kid love Tink!)
a snuggly hat
a harmonica
and here's when she got stuck. She got one of those walking wind-up cows and then she was done opening presents. She didn't want to open anymore, she just wanted to play with the cow and the other toys she'd already received so Cam and I finished opening her presents while she was playing.
A great morning was had by all of us!

Our Handmade Christmas

All year long I look forward to doing Christmas crafts. I collect ideas from all over (mostly other blogs) year round and store them on my computer. This year my beautiful Clementine was big enough (and interested enough) to help!

We made alphabet magnets for Nolan (bottom picture on this entry) that are just like her set. I painted the wooden coins and put the magnet on the back w/ super glue then she put the letter stickers on.

For her two preschool teachers I used drink carriers and leftover Christmas scrapbook paper as the container.

Then we filled the four compartments with Body Scrub and cupcakes in a jar (both made by me and Clementine--recipe @ OurBestBites.com), lavender hand sanitizer (we peeled off the standard label and put the teacher's initials on the front with Thickers) and Santa kleenex. Then, to make sure everything stayed in place, we filled up the gaps with little Clementines.


This year my sister and I agreed that the gifts we exchanged would be hand-made. She made me an awesome wreath and I made her a garden gazing ball--neither of which do I have pictures of!
But I did take pictures of the little canvas I made for Nolan's room

and the first four magnets of his set. (I am so into the yellow, gray and black color combination right now!)
I have always loved doing this kind of stuff while on winter break, but this year was extra special since I had my little helper! I hope this is a tradition she and I can make a yearly thing.

Twas the Night Before Christmas...

...and all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring,
except for our girl.
The dishes were piled
all up in the sink
When our little Clementine
went in for the sneak.
She was so busted,
squirreling seconds of meat,
She and her father's
favorite treat.

Kiss Miss Yites

Clementine calls ALL lights KissMiss Yites these days.
Last weekend we celebrated my Granny's birthday by going to the Bellevue Botanical Garden Light display. It was incredible!
As soon as we walked in, Clementine found this lit up snowman and had to touch all the parts. Her favorite cousin, Nolan, joined in the fun.
There were so many incredible light displays. I wish my camera had captured these a little better!
While trying to get a nice picture of my mom and the babies, my sister photo-bombed me. Thanks Sissy!
Then Clementine and Nolan spent some time climbing on the frog statue,
which then explains this picture. Clementine was far more interested in being a frog (she is hopping in this picture) than posing with me in front of the beautiful tree.
Meg got her offspring to hold still for a minute!
Nolan, Clem and Sissy, Me, my mom and granny.
Here are the cousins checking out the blue lights.
Even though it was crowded we all had a great time. The weather held out for us and everyone was impressed by the light displays.

Before and After: First Floor

Before:
When we moved here, the whole house was carpeted in pristine white. That white lasted about 6 minutes. With a toddler and two animals that carpet didn't stand a chance.
Almost all of the walls were white, too with the exception of the two green walls that were painted before we moved here. There were A LOT of white walls here. Those didn't last long either. So last winter we painted all the white walls brown.

Finally, we were ready to rip out the carpet. We took a day to tear out ALL the carpet and nails/staples and then installed the new floors in record time. Cam even finished this project on his own while I was at my conference in Orlando.


After:

Once the floors were in we discovered that our couch and dining room table were the exact same colors as the wood. Oops! So I found these two orange outdoor rugs (they are super easy to clean) on Overstock.com and we threw one under each the sectional and the dining table to give them some "definition".
I also put together a little picture wall in the dining room
and found coordinating accessories--pillows from Costco (!!) and my favorite green tin star from a little home store in Lynden, lamp and shade from Ikea, green and brown throw blankets from Sears.


Now we've already moved on to the Master bedroom. New floors and paint are already up. A few more projects to go and then I'll post pictures.

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

These are two old snow pictures but I couldn't resist them. It snowed right before Thanksgiving and then turned to ice for days. Clementine went outside on the first day of sticking snow, took a turn on her sled and marched herself back inside where it was warm and cozy.
Because of the cold weather we've been having lots of warm things to drink indoors. Everyone's favorite, of course, is homemade hot chocolate.


This week we decorated our Gingerbread house.
Only, there wasn't so much this:
as there was this:
Here's the end result. I was snapping pictures proudly of our little creation when Cam walked up behind me and said "What the hell is happening to this guy?"
I swear, Clementine decorated this gingerbread man and originally this gumdrop was a button. But it works, so it stayed.
We left this gingerbread house in all it's glory on the table. The next day when we got back home from work, all that was left was the white tray. Dumb dumb (Jack) ate every last piece of candy and glue/icing! Ah well, we had a great time decorating it.